11 Months with Ellie

Changes/Development
Ellie is getting quite good at getting around - she is still doing the scooting thing, but she is quite fast at it now.  She also started to pull herself up on things this month, mostly the couch and me!

She has started to become a mama's girl.  She will follow me around from room to room and currently shows preference towards me over Brian (well, duh, I am the milk maker!).  She definitely lets us know that she wants to be held because she will start to cry the minute you set her down if she is in a fussy mood. 

One of her top teeth is starting to break through and I think that is making her a bit fussier than normal lately.  We have been trying to introduce more solid foods, she really likes cheese, pasta, black beans, cheerios and strawberries. 

She has been really cute with Winnie lately.  We taught Ellie how to give winnie kisses and it is the cutest thing!  I am so jealous of the fact that she gets to grow up with a dog, I wanted a dog my whole childhood and winnie is my first dog!

Sleep

Still doing awesome in the sleep department!  She goes to sleep around 7pm and wakes up between 6:30-7:15 am most days. Normally she takes two 1 hour naps.  one around 10 am and the second one around 2:30pm.  Some days she will take a 2 hour nap.

Mama Stuff
I am trying to get in some good runs before the really cold weather sets in around here.  Lately it has been feeling pretty fall like which is nice, but it makes me dread the real cold showing up.  I am starting to look forward to introducing milk to Ellie and starting to cut down on the nursing/pumping.  I am not exactly sure how I will make this transition, but I think some time after her first birthday party I will have my mom start to give her cows milk during the day and then I will still nurse her in the morning and at night.  I think that will be a good transition. 

Other Stuff
I am starting to plan Ellie's 1st birthday party!  The theme is going to be Teddy Bear Picnic!  I can't wait.  It will probably be a small affair - just family. I can't believe my baby is almost 1 :(

Here is the picture we used for her invitation:

I can't believe these feelings are coming back

********Please don't read if you are having a bad IF day because you will probably end up hating me*********

I am lucky, so very lucky.  I have a healthy 10 month old daughter.  So why do those terrible feelings come rushing back in when I see that a friend is posting something on a mama's facebook page about possible implantation bleeding? 

I can recognize that my feelings are completely ridiculous. This friend has a 15 month old son and her and her husband must be trying for a sibling.  Why should that make my heart skip a beat (and not in a good way).  I should be happy for her and happy for me that I already have a child.  

Instead I feel those old feelings of "why her and not me" creeping back in.  Why are my emotions like that of a spoiled child?  Many of my blog friends would kill to have 1 child and here I am getting huffy over friends trying for a second. 

I think deep down the feelings are driven by the fact that I am fearful of having to go back to IF treatments when we try for another child.  I am jealous of others who get to jump back in bed to try for a sibling and not set up RE appointments.  

I just had to write down my feelings here to release them from my brain.  I apologize for anyone reading my blog that thinks I am a brat.  

The end. 

A couple of videos

I wanted to share a few recent videos of Ellie!  

The first on is her scooting around and the second one is just a cute one :)

(please ignore my terrible commentary)

10 Months with Ellie

Changes/Development
We have a crawler!  Ellie started with a little scooting around and how she can get places fast!  She doesn't quite crawl on her hands and both knees, rather she keeps one foot under her body and propels herself forward with the other foot and her hands.  I am waiting for the foot she is sitting on to come out straight but maybe she just won't crawl the "normal" way. 

Her two bottom teeth look like they are almost fully in.  I haven't felt any other teeth poking through just yet.  

Ellie is really starting to get into a fun stage.  She can interact with adults and other kids so much more now.  I love it when I pick her up after work and she crawls over to me when she sees me.  When she sees me pick up a baby book to read she scoots right over to look at all of the pictures.  

Ellie had her baptism this month.  We waited a bit because we weren't 100% sure which church we were going to go with.  I was raised Catholic and Brian was raised Lutheran and we were able to find a church that we both really like and where we feel comfortable.  Ellie wore my family's christening gown that is almost 100  years old.  My grandfather's brother was the first person to wear it and almost everyone in my family was baptized in it.  

We also got her a party dress for after the ceremony.  

Sleep
Ellie has been really awesome with sleep lately.  She consistently sleeps through the night - goes to bed around 7 pm and wakes up between 6:45-7:15am.  She takes two naps a day and either one can range from 30 minutes to 3 hours.  

Feeding
Ellie is still mostly breastfed at this point, but she does have 2 "meals" a day.  In the morning she has oatmeal baby cereal with mixed in fruit.  Sometime midday I try to give her some finger foods (small pieces of cheese, puffs, baby mum mum cracker, egg yolk, etc) and then purred veggies in the afternoon. She is doing great at the finger foods and I need to figure out how to get her to eat more of them.  I get nervous about her choking on things, but even though she only has two teeth, she seems to do well mashing things up. 

Mama Stuff
I have been a spoiled pumper for the past few months at work.  I am very lucky that there is a dedicated nursing room at work.  I may have mentioned it on my blog before, but the room has a sink, mini fridge, reclining chair, and cleaning supplies.  It is very close to my desk which makes it super convenient.  On top of all that I was the only person using it for the past few months so I could come and go as I pleased and leave my stuff all over the room. 

This past week a new person at work has returned from maternity leave and started using it.  I am thrilled that she is utilizing it, I am just missing being able to come and go as I please and not worry about my "scheduled time."  It is nice though knowing that somebody else at work is pumping too.  It can often feel strange to have to duck away to go milk myself (ha) so it is good that I am not alone!

Brian and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary this past weekend and Brian and my birthday is also this week (big week, eh?).  We went out to dinner in the North End for some Italian food and it was a lot of fun.  We were originally planning to go away some place for our anniversary, but between Ellie's Baptism and Brian's sister's wedding, it would have been too much all in one month.  Plus it would have been a bit tricky to leave her for a few days while still nursing.  

Brian and I are flying down to Philly for his sister's wedding (leaving early Saturday coming back Sunday afternoon) and Ellie is staying with my mom.  I am not concerned about leaving Ellie (my mom takes care of her 3 days a week so she knows her routines, etc), I am more concerned about finding the time and place to pump, hopefully that won't be an issue.  It is nice to have an adult night, but at the same time I have to remember that my body still wants to feed Ellie!  

9 Months with Ellie

9 Months?  Is my baby really 9 months old?  I really can't wrap my head around that.  The idea that she will be 1 in 3 short months is completely mind boggling. 

Changes/Developments
No crawling yet, but Ellie likes to sit and spin around.  She can push herself backwards while on her tummy, so she can move places, but can't move herself forward so she ends up backing herself into corners a lot!

She has 2 teeth coming in!  The bottom two in front.  I was surprised one day when I felt them in her mouth because she hadn't been acting fussier than usual - I figured when her first teeth started to cut through that she would be a teething mess, but she has been quite good!  Fingers crossed she stays that way while the rest come in!

She has been babbling a ton recently and she has made some sounds that sound like "dada" although she doesn't refer to Brian when she says "dada" so it is up for some debate whether this is just babbling or her first word. 

She is very curious, loves to look around at people and when she is in the mood she gives people big smiles.  No sign of stranger danger yet - it takes her about 30 seconds to warm to people and give out a smile.  


Sleep
We realized that at 8 months Ellie should be able to sleep through the night (she had been waking up once per night for the last few months) so we let her cry it out one night (which was not fun or easy) but from that point forward she has slept through almost every night.  It is amazing.  People tell you how their baby sleeps from 7 pm to 7 am and you don't quite believe it when your baby is say, 3 months old, but then your baby gets the hang of this sleep thing and it is the best thing ever.  Most nights she sleeps from 7 pm until 6:30 am or 7 am.  

Naps are decent depending on the day.  Today she took a 2 hour nap in the morning and a 1 hour nap in the afternoon, which is much better than she normally does - i think she is still tired from our vacation this past week where she napped terribly!  Most days she will do a 45-60 min morning nap and a 1-2 hour afternoon nap.  

Feeding
We are still breastfeeding as her predominant method of food, but she gets 2-3 solids in a day.  She is eating more solids now, including some finger foods like cut up peaches, puffs and baby mum moms.  She has a 50% average on getting finger foods into her mouth and Winnie knows just where to stand when Ellie is in her high chair. 

Mama Stuff

The runs with Ellie in the jogging stroller are going well, although I average about 1 minute per mile slower when jogging with the stroller.  I consider running with the stroller my "strength training" to make me faster when I run without it!  I have loved being able to run 4 times a week and I hope to sign up for some road races in the fall.  

I had been stressing pretty badly with work for the past month or so, luckily having last week off has allowed me to completely disconnect from work and not think about it.  I often stress myself out and end up not being able to sleep at night.  I wish I could find a good way to clear my mind of work stuff while I sleep, but so far nothing seems to work.  

With Labor Day approaching I am starting to get sad about the New England weather starting to change.  I have loved being able to take Ellie and Winnie for walks most days and I am nervous what indoor life will be like come winter time.  I need to start writing down different activities that we can do over the winter!

First Family Vacation

We just got back from our first official family vacation!  

We rented a small house on a lake for a week up in New Hampshire for just Brian, Ellie, Winnie and I.  We were a little late in booking the place, but we were lucky to find something that allowed us to bring our dog and was in our price range.  I think we packed up our entire house (just to give you an idea of how much we packed: we had to take 2 cars.  Yup that is right....I drove up 1 car and Brian drove up another car and they were both PACKED to the brim.) Luckily the house was only about an hour and a half drive from our home!

The house was on Sunrise Lake, which is a small and quiet lake.  The house had a nice little beach where we could sit out in the sand and play in the water. 

 We spent most days hanging out at the house.  Brian and I would take turns either going for runs or biking in the mornings and then when the weather warmed up we would sit out on the beach.  

I must say that while the vacation was fun and relaxing, vacationing with a baby is MUCH different than vacationing with just Brian.  There was much less down time and we were a bit limited in activities.  That being said, I think this type of vacation was ideal for our first extended time away from home. We were able to do things at a slow pace and bring whatever we wanted with us. 

 Winnie had a lot of fun playing fetch in the water

 Enjoying my favorite beer and some wings!

 Ellie and Winnie enjoying the beach

 Ellie and Me

 Ellie feeling the sand in her toes!

 

Brian preparing the fire

8 Months with Ellie!

Changes/Developments
Ellie has mastered sitting on her own.  The nice thing about this is now she can be in a regular stroller without her infant seat, which gives her more space and allows us to adjust the incline.  I have had her in the front of a shopping cart now and that makes doing errands a lot easier than putting her in a carrier or using the click n go type stroller with limited basket space.  She loves to look at everything going on in the supermarket and smile at people.  

She is definitely a happy baby.  She loves when we give her raspberries on her tummy and can make the raspberry sound herself. Several times a day we get great coos and belly laughs which are amazing. She is rarely in a bad mood and usually only cries when we put her in her car seat and she doesn't want to be in it.  She will whimper if we put her down on her mat and she wants to be carried instead.  She has taken up whimpering when she is unhappy about what is going on. 

She can sit and play on her own for a bit on her mat with her toys, but she prefers to be with people playing or being carried around facing out.  

She loves to play on the grass and tries to stick the grass in her mouth.  She is drooling a lot now, but still no teeth poking through.  Her babbling has increased and now she makes sounds like "mamamama" but it isn't the "true" mama that i am looking for, because she isn't referring to me when she makes these sounds. She still loves making loud noises just because she can/wants to see how loud her voice can get.  

Sleep
She is still waking up once per night to eat, usually between 3-4:30 am.  Occasionally she goes until 5:30 am, but not usually.   It isn't too terrible, because usually I just nurse her and she goes back to sleep and I go back to sleep, but sometimes I can't get back to sleep and that kind of stinks.

Feeding
We are still breastfeeding as her predominant method of food, but she gets 2-3 solids in a day.  We have started giving her puffs and mum-mum crackers as well and she is doing good getting things into her mouth.  She is eating a lot more of the pureed foods than the first few weeks when she was just starting out with solids.   Her pop has changed over from being that nice not too smelly breastfed only poop to being solid older baby type poop. 

Mama Stuff

Now that Ellie is sitting up on her own I have started taking her on runs in the jogging stroller.  This is great because previously I could only go for runs when Brian was around to watch her.  Now I can just take her with me, so I am getting in a lot more runs.  It is a lot of work to push her uphill in the jogging stroller, but it makes for a good workout!

We haven't been on any far away trips lately, but we did a few fun things this month:

Cape Cod for the 4th of July


Watched daddy's triathlon and wore my track suit
 
Picnic in the park
 
Fire truck day in town

 
Day trip to Boston



And this one is just plain cute